Typically, utility meters (e.g., gas meters, water meters, electricity meters, etc.) are read manually by meter readers who are employees or contractors of the various utility providers. Manual meter reading represents a significant cost to a typical utility provider. However, with the advent of wireless technology including mesh networking, utility providers have sought methods and systems for remote reading of water meters and even the remote control of water supply valves.
Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) or Advanced Metering Management (AMM) include systems that measure, collect and analyze utility data using advanced metering devices, such as advanced water meters, gas meters, and electricity meters. In addition to measuring the various utilities, the advanced metering devices are also configured with communication circuitry, enabling the metering devices to transmit and receive data through an AMI network. In a typical configuration, an advanced metering device (e.g., an advanced water meter) measures and collects usage data (e.g., water usage data) at a customer's location. The metering device then uses a communication interface to transmit data to a parent node up through the hierarchy of the mesh network, often in response to the parent node's request for such information. The meter data can ultimately be transmitted up the mesh network to a collector associated with the utility provider. In this way, the utility providers may remotely “read” customer usage data for billing purposes.
The transmitting and receiving components of the mesh network (i.e., utility provider, nodes, meters, etc.) may communicate using radio frequency (RF) transmission. However, some environments may include a large amount of electromagnetic noise or a large amount of communication traffic, making communications between devices more difficult. Therefore, there is a need for more robust systems that are capable of operating in less than perfect conditions, such as in high-traffic or noisy environments.